I have a lot of thoughts about this one.

Why is it creepy god damnit it didn’t have to be creepy

For one, I wish it wasn’t fucken creepy. They always do this, they go a little too far into the realm of gross. He did not have to be all the way into tertiary education. They did not have to be middle schoolers. They did not have to have all those scenes that were kinda gross. With that out of the way

Idk if this is a good gender identity story

I’m not trans, and though I may spend time with a fair few transgender people I can’t really speak for them when I say I just don’t really buy this as a self-discovery story. It’s not really a focus, and we barely see Mahiro discover anything resembling gender dysphoria. By the end of the season, he/she/they (sticking with they pronouns for now ig)…

Spoiler, click to view

are content with continuing to roleplay as a girl without really concluding whether they feel they are more themselves when they represent themselves this way. Instead of the decision being driven from within, it was driven by pressures from their social life.

It’s really more about a recovering hikikomori, and the gender bend is just the “spice” that launches us into all the wacky antics of a man who hasn’t been questioning his gender identity adjusting to the life of a young apparent (“apparent” as in appearance) woman.

Trans people, lemme know what u think. Genuinely curious to hear your perspective on how this show handled it. Maybe I’m completely wrong, who knows. I’m a stupid man that won the 50/50 and got assigned the sex at birth I felt best described me as a person.

Talkin about music now cos there isn’t anywhere else to put it

Music was unremarkable to me, I’m really not a fan of the specific genre of music they have in the ED, and I skipped the OP because they had a really bad shot of Mahiro (MIDDLE SCHOOLER BY THE WAY) with their hands on their chest. I didn’t clock the OST otherwise.

Unsatisfying as per usual

I would’ve liked to see more on Mahiro and their sister’s relationship in the past, why she held them so highly in regard, Mahiro discovering how they feel about their new situation, how they fell off so hard, their relationship with their sister, etc.

▶ Video As per usual, they settle into a funk, and keep it going until the very last episode. Then, they’re faced with something that harkens back to the beginning, they show that something has changed since episode 1, and everything continues as if nothing happened.

I eagerly await the day the industry adopts the strategy of not simply animating a manga, but adapting it to fit the medium it targets. You only get 12 episodes, I really dislike the attitude of “just read the source material if you want to know what happens”. Who the hell asked to watch an incomplete story. What do you even hire writers for?

Mahiro is not a tertiary education man

You cannot convince me that Mahiro after episode like 4 was a man that was in tertiary education, and ESPECIALLY not a hikikomori. No shut-in is going to be that socially aware, socially active, naturally charismatic or capable of reading the room like that. I know so many non-shut-ins that are just so much more abysmal in communication and social interaction.

▶ Video GRANTED, I have tried watching shows that truly depict the protagonists as hopeless shut ins, and they are so frustrating, especially when they don’t improve. So I kind-of understand why they didn’t base Mahiro’s personality on realism. # How far will you go if the girl is cute This anime really spun the tables back on me though. I can call the show trashy all I want, but in the end it did really challenge my ideas of gender identity. I didn’t arrive at a conclusion that was any different to what I had already logically concluded before I watched this show- I’m a fully straight man, and I am attracted to largely feminine traits, as well as sexually attracted to women’s sex organs (to put it in the least sexy way possible). But this sort of forced me to confront it and come to understand it. It’s like being shown an example of what happens when you don’t follow a warning you don’t understand. I understand it now. Fundamentally, Mahiro is a man in a woman’s body, at least for quite a long time throughout the anime. Yet, with the way they’re depicting them, I’m still finding it appealing (she’s a middle schooler so like, gross, but I’m talking in terms of the “personality” in a woman’s body). But I’ve always thought I was into women. And it’s true, I have generally found I like women to be a little tomboyish to a degree, but I just didn’t expect all for it to take was effectively a reskin for my feelings to completely 180. From just “another one of the boys” to “damn who she?”. It’s really strange how that works, and I’m kind of concerned with how vain of a conclusion that seems to be. I guess this is just another dub for pansexual people, and I’m here wishing I could take the “moral high ground” with them 😅

Whatever, gender’s a social construct, how can I say I’m straight if I’ve never fucked a dude to know for sure, etc.

How far will you go if the show is cute

I mean overall the show was really cute when it wasn’t being creepy. They somehow found the infinite frame glitch with the some of the most dense animation I’ve seen in this genre as well as a cute art style overall. They also got that “little guy” aesthetic down pat for all the times they want to go full goof mode.

▶ Video They may basically stop going anywhere after we cross the halfway point, but as far as disguised slice of life goes, this one wasn’t that bad, especially since we go on a bit of a journey to get there. There is still a bit of a progression that we get to see, which is nice. Dude or not, Mahiro was really cute pretty frequently. # Anyways I don’t really know if I should recommend this show or not. On the one hand, the animation and art is cute, the plot isn’t the worst, it’s pretty simple but that’s not too bad for this sort of show. On the other hand, there are flat-out creepy moments, questionable depictions of what gender means, and a billion questions left unanswered. Come to your own conclusions I guess. I’m gonna go fuck men or something